2024 Liquid Helium Sources Sought

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE for market research purposes.  THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) anticipates a requirement for liquid helium on an as-needed basis. 

The Contractor must furnish the necessary personnel, material, equipment, services, and facilities to supply liquid helium in 30, 60, 100, 250, and 1000 liter contractor-owned dewars and have the capability to fill and deliver NIST owned 250-liter dewars, on an as-needed basis.  Dewar size indicates product capacity of the dewar.  The total quantity of liquid helium required is estimated at 65,000 liters per year for the base period and each of the option periods, if the option periods are exercised. Purity of the liquid helium shall be a minimum of 99.998%.  The Contractor shall be paid for the quantity of liquid helium actually ordered and delivered.  Rental charges shall be paid in accordance with the timelines and rates negotiated.

NIST currently orders twice weekly, on Monday and Friday, with deliveries on Tuesdays and Thursdays before noon. It is anticipated that this delivery schedule will be maintained.

NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 325120 Industrial Gas Manufacturing, as those domestic sources having 1, 200 employees or less. Please include your company’s size classification in any response to this notice.

Companies that can provide the required product in Contractor-owned dewars, are requested to email a detailed report describing their abilities to derrick.flecther@nist.gov no later than the response date for this sources sought notice.

After the results of this market research are obtained and analyzed and specifications are developed for this requirement, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract.

The report must explain all capabilities, including the capability to provide the required helium product and dewars, and any other information relevant to your products and/or capabilities. Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice:

1. Name and business size of the company proposing to perform the work;
2. If subcontractors or distributors would be utilized, the name of company(ies), and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address);
3. Confirmation that the identified ordering/delivery time can be met;
4. Confirmation of the maximum number of option period for which the Contractor could provide a firm-fixed per liter price for helium;
5. Estimated number of dewars that the Contractor has available for use;
6. Size of the Contractor’s truck fleet for delivery of dewars;
7. Any other relevant information that is not listed above that the Government should consider in finalizing its market research.